Next Generation of Droid Smartphones Coming Next Week From Verizon and Motorola

Motorola's Droid is the best-selling Android phone ever—it even reached the million-sold mark faster than the iPhone—and Verizon is set to announce the follow-up next week, on June 23rd.

Verizon owns (or at least rents from George Lucas) the "Droid" name, and it doesn't seem to be manufacturer-specific. HTC's Droid Incredible (essentially an HTC Sense version of the Google Nexus One) also carries the Droid name, for one. But this invitation notes that the new devices will be introduced by Verizon, Google, Adobe, and Motorola, so we can expect another Moto phone (or two).

There are two Motorola Droid devices rumored at the moment: the Droid 2 and Droid X. The Droid 2, just above, is lesser-known; it's a slider, like the original Droid, and seems, at least according to a Droid-Life expose, to be only marginally changed. The keyboard is nicely redesigned, but otherwise it's hardly changed: It might get a processor bump to a 1GHz chip, and have 8GB of internal memory, but that's about it.

The Droid X (pictured top), which was just manhandled today by Engadget, looks like Verizon's answer to the HTC Evo 4G. It's got that massive 4.3 (or 4.4)-inch screen, an 8MP camera, 720p video recording, and a 1GHz processor. It's huge, physically, both wider and taller than the Evo 4G, which is just barely pocket-sized itself.

Both the Droid 2 and Droid X appear to be running a customized version of Android, possibly a new version of Motorola's well-tolerated Motoblur. That's a blessing and a curse; customized skins are often prettier and more efficient than stock Android, but they're also slower to get software updates, sometimes several months behind.

In any case, Verizon and Motorola will announce the new Droid(s) on June 23rd, and we'll be covering the announcement.

Dan Nosowitz, the author of this post, can be followed on Twitter, corresponded with via email, and stalked in San Francisco (no link for that one—you'll have to do the legwork yourself).